DENTON – North Texas Book Festival’s guest speaker for the Chuckwagon Breakfast is Nancy Churnin, author of the children’s book “The William Hoy Story: How a Deaf Baseball Player Changed the Game” and theater critic for The Dallas Morning News. The breakfast is 7-9:30 a.m. Saturday, April 15, at Patterson-Appleton Arts Center in Denton.
Churnin will discuss her long journey to become a published author. She published her first book last year, and Churnin’s second book, “Manjhi Moves a Mountain,” is scheduled for publication this year.
The breakfast also will include the announcement of NTBF Book Awards winners in several categories, as well as grant presentations to several North Texas public and school libraries and literacy programs. NTBF, a nonprofit, raises money for libraries and literacy programs each year.
Admission to the breakfast is $10 for each adult and $5 for each child under age 10. The Vintage Jazz Society will provide entertainment, and breakfast reservations must be received by April 7; reservations are required.
“The North Texas Book Festival is a light in the darkness, spreading the wonder of the written word to those who need it most,” said Churnin, who is a member of NTBF and attended last year’s festival. “This organization and its dedicated members keep me encouraged and excited about the books that have been written, are being written and will be written by those just beginning to understand the amazing things that stories can do.”
Churnin’s “The William Hoy Story” (Albert Whitman & Co.), was named to the Texas Library Association’s 2017 2X2 list and made the best books for kids lists from the New York Public Library and School Library Journal. The book received a glowing review in The New York Times, a full-page in USA Today Sports Weekly and is now in its third printing.
Her book, “Manjhi Moves a Mountain” will come out in September. “Charlie Makes His Shot: How Charlie Sifford Broke the Color Barrier in Golf” and “The Princess and the Tree” both will hit bookshelves in 2018.
A native New Yorker, Churnin is a graduate of Harvard University and earned a master’s degree from Columbia University School of Journalism. She is married to Dallas Morning News arts writer Michael Granberry.
The 17th annual festival will begin at 10 a.m. the same day, and it will last until 3 p.m. Churnin and more than 60 other authors are scheduled to sell and sign their books; there is a waiting list for vendor tables, and more information can be found by emailing Katherine Boyer at ntbf10@verizon.net.
An Easter egg hunt with a twist also is planned.
There is no admission fee for the festival. Patterson-Appleton Arts Center is at 400 E. Hickory St.
